25 Ways To Find Companies To Buy
When you start your program to purchase your "ideal" company, you quickly realize that your ultimate success will depend on two primary skill sets: 1) Your ability to FIND viable companies that are for sale, and 2) Your ability to effectively qualify the potential acquisition investment once found.
This article is about only step one, how to creatively find viable companies and one's that are able to be purchased.
Assuming you have clearly defined your business purchase criteria and you have decided to pursue only companies that are "officially" for sale, versus attempting to find and contact company owners who might be willing to sell, you will need to explore as many ways as you can to find companies for sale as possible.
As a business buyer you want to use the best means possible to position yourself to get the first shot at your most promising acquisition candidates and to do such in as cost effective means as possible.
Often the more "creative" you are to find deals, the quicker you'll find the "right" deal. The more diverse your means to locate viable companies for sale the better your chances of finding a quality acquisition candidate that few others are aware of.
When you are pursuing acquisition candidates you really never know where your next deal will come from. It could be word-of- mouth, something your read in a newspaper, a visit to a website or a lead from an association meeting. Listed below are a variety of ways you can use to find businesses to buy:
25 Ways to Find Businesses For Sale
* Investment Bankers: Regional, National, International
* Investment Banker websites: Listings of businesses for sale
* Business Brokers: Regional and National
* Business Brokerage websites: Listings of businesses for sale
* Venture Capital Firms: Good referral potential
* Mezzanine Lenders: Regional, National, Always aware of potential deals
* Newspapers: Listings in Local, Regional, National and Industry specific
* Magazines: Listings in Regional, National and Industry specific
* Newsletters: Listings in printed or "Ezines" on the internet - Industry specific
* Commercial Banks: Many of their clients are considering sale of their company
* Consultants: All varieties, many have extensive practices and many owner contacts
* Associations: All varieties, some are focused just on merger & acquisition activities
* Business Directories: All forms of printed and electronic, many industry specific
* M&A Service Providers: They know who is selling what often on a national basis
* Product Suppliers: Many product manufacturers/ distributors are in the know
* Trade Shows: Walk a trade show in an industry of interest, salesman love to talk!
* Accountants: Many have large practices with extensive business owner contacts
* Professors: Many provide consultative services to business owners or are board members
* Corporate Officers: Especially Corporate Development managers, seeking "spin-off's"
* Bank Trust Departments: Sometimes viable businesses surface in trust situations
* M&A Legal Specialists: Many are in the "crosswinds" of constant deal opportunities
* Networking Meetings: Your local business newspaper publishes many of these
* Technology Licensors: Always aware of companies getting "out" of new technologies
* Directory of Board Members: Board members typically know other board members
* Business Associates: Current and previous business associates and service providers
These "25 Ways to Find Businesses for Sale" are only a few of the creative means you can use to find acquisition candidates. Keep this list and add your own methods once you start your business pursuit program. With today's endless capabilities of the internet, its worldwide reach into various countries, industries and industry participants, there are countless variations for most of the means listed here.
As important about being proactive to locate companies to acquire you need to be as diligent to broadcast and document your specific business purchase interests and purchase criteria whenever and wherever possible. Business owners; individuals, corporations with multi divisions, merger and acquisition intermediaries, private equity firms need to know who you are and what specific businesses you seek to purchase.
This notification effort can be manifested in printed or "electronic" formats. The internet again is the most cost effective means to document your exact business purchase criteria and interests. However, be aware that there are few e commerce sites that specifically accommodate proactive business buyer needs. Most business transaction websites focus on listing businesses for sale, facilitating primarily business sellers needs, not business buyers.
Take the time and effort to research and try all these different means to locate companies to buy. Some will be more productive than others, while some may be more accommodating to your specific business pursuit requirements. You must do what you must to throw away as much hay as you can to get to that needle in the stack!
About the Author:
Mark Smock is President of http://www.business-buyer-directory.com,
the FIRST international business buyer directory of its kind.
Business Buyer Directory provides a non-traditional means for
proactive business buyers to locate businesses for sale
worldwide that meet their exact registered purchase criteria.
More Resources
Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exitingMore Strategic Planning Information:
Related Articles
Shortening Product Life Cycle!
The current state of the available technology at the disposal of designer is the most limiting determinant to what is technically and economically feasible to develop, therefore research into metatechnology such as computer science, whereby interdisciplinary spin off provides advances that both directly increase capabilities, and affects other technologies to dramatically improve system performance, is a necessity, the implication being that despite many of the basic principles being relatively static, the technology used is essentially in a state of constant development.Such developments result in smaller, more efficient, cheaper and more reliable components.
The Power of Planning
I am surprised how few sales professionals, independent consultants, and small business owners take the time to plan the strategy for their business. Most people spend more time writing out a grocery list or planning a vacation than they do planning the direction or outcome of their business.
Five Crucial Components of a Business Plan
The format of a Business Plan is something that has been
developed and refined over the years and is something that should
not be changed. Like a good recipe, a business plan needs to
include certain ingredients to make it work.
Buying Used Detailing Equipment and Rainy Day Services
Mobile auto detailing equipment becomes very inexpensive around March each year. If you look on eBay or your local classified section of the newspaper you will see.
Business Plan: The Simplest Business Plan Ever
If you're a solo professional like I am, you know how tough it is to find any time at all to do any business planning. Doing a full business plan is a must if you're planning to seek financing or investors, but most solo professionals don't need anything that complicated.
The Top Ten Rules of Effective Networking
Many of us are discouraged by the networking events that we go to. We feel swamped by people just looking to get money from us, and we rarely feel as though the event was worth our time.
Business Disaster? Wont Happen to Me
As fast as you can say business disaster, your business can go up in smoke. That's what happened a while back to Castle Carpet One.
Ten Steps To A Great Strategic Plan
Ask a small business owner about their strategic plan and they'll either laugh or get that stricken look in their eyes. Yet it's well documented that businesses with a strategic plan are more successful.
Offense: Beat the Odds
When in doubt, cut that out! Yeah, yea, doubting Thomas may have had a point in his day, and life may not be what you want it to be, but if you constantly doubt yourself, how can you accomplish anything?Where is your confidence? What possible good can come from taking the negative aspect of any situation and growing it into acceptance?Purpose of achievement is to attain a goal. So, if you set your goals and strive to get there, it should be assumed that you are moving toward your goal (at least so far as intent) no matter what you are doing, right?I vaguely remember an instructor from college saying once, "If there are two ways to take something, always input the benefit of doubt and assume the better more optimistic choice is the right way to take it.
Who is Responsible?
While writing an article recently on effective ways to bridge the IT/Management communication gap, I realized that few of us are eager to take responsibility in our business lives to make something different happen and be part of the solution.Indeed, we have a culture based on blaming: sellers would obviously close more sales if it weren't for the buyer; decisions could easily get made in meetings if people could make up their minds; systems would get designed correctly if the users could get it right the first time; teammates would get along if it weren't for those in the team that were difficult, etc.
Clearing the Path: 4 Ways Fear Wreaks Havoc on Your Dream and What to Do About It
Please take a moment before you read any further and answer these three simple questions:1. Are you making daily progress towards accomplishing your business vision?2.
Will and Vision
Remember Chux? The disposable diaper that took the market by storm in 1932?
Of course you don't. Chux saw its product as a luxury item, and happily kept its little throwaway business to itself for almost forty years.
Break-Even Analysis
A significant advantage of some business ideas is that the venture can break even at what seems to be an easily achievable volume. A technique for quantifying that volume, called break-even analysis, examines the interaction among fixed costs, variable costs, prices, and unit volume to determine that combination of elements in which revenues and total costs are equal.
Top Ten Reasons To Create A One Page Business Plan
There is a story, about a business owner who wasn't doing very well. She had no business plan, but had heard, quite a bit, how creating one would help.
How to Write a Business Plan in Five Steps
People often ask "What makes a good business plan? Or, "How do I make my plan attractive to lenders and investors?".The simple answer is that lenders and investors (I'll call them "readers" from here on out) are looking for "good deals".
Writing a Business Plan for Success in Business and for Funding
Writing a business plan to help you direct and manage your company is a key part of starting you new company that will help lead you and your company to success. Creating a "living and breathing" business plan makes that success even easier to reach.
Three Easy Ways To Know Thy Competitor
"Did you hear what your competitor is doing?" This question has caused many business people to freeze in their tracks. How about you? Does your sales team know what your competitors are doing? And if a prospect was to ask them, "give me 10 unique reasons why I should buy from you and your company," could they answer this question without a pause? "Knowing thy competitor" is critical, and this article will outline three easy ways to know more about them, than they know about you! Let's get started!Their people: Begin by "shopping" on the telephone, by mail and in-person, the competitors who offer similar pricing and products as your company.
Defining Go for It Business Goals
Many business start-up kits or consultants will tell you one of the first steps to starting a business is to define your business goals. Your goals may differ from the goals of another individual, for example; some people want freedom to do what they want to do, whenever they want, and without having to report to someone else.
More Uses for Your Business Plan
You have invested a lot of time and energy on writing a business plan just to get a loan or to attract an investor. What do you do when you get the money or, worse, should you be turned down?Do you just file it away? That's like investing in a boat that remains parked in your driveway after its inaugural voyage.
The Chasm of Change---- Restructuring ----- The Goliath
Richard L. Daft one of the country's recognized academic leadership experts raises the question, "What kind of people can lead an organization through major change?" A Turn-A-Round restructuring qualifies as major change and requires transformational leadership.
A Unique Joint Venture Twist: Make Huge Profits Even If You Have No Money, No Products, and No List
Would you like to jumpstart your online or offline business without spending a ton of money?Without a doubt, joint venture marketing is the most powerful secret to making money online or offline.In its simplest form, you partner with someone else: You either sell their product to your customer base or they sell your product to theirs.
Microsoft Great Plains Implementation: Pharmaceutical Corporation Specifics - overview
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains serves mid-size and large clients in horizontal and vertical markets. Historically Great Plains Software was encouraging ISV partner to write third party modules and later on - Great Plains Software had a chance to select the product for incorporation into their core set of modules: Manufacturing, Project Accounting, Purchase Order Processing, Collection Management, etc.
A Rough Cut on Feasibility
A piano tuner recently moved to Buffalo, NY, and would like to assess the business possibilities for him in his new home. He plans to estimate how many piano tuners the greater Buffalo area can support, and compare that to the number listed in the phone book.